+1 Vote to Disgaea, Heres a 3minute section of, essentially a hilarious dark anime, and then a level of murder. Then after every chapter one of the characters summarizes the plotline, in a delusional cartoony manner, where they're a superhero figthing robot aliens.

And yet from a narrative perspective Max Payne is miles ahead of anything else. The laden Scandinavian mythology metaphors, noir styling and the self parody all collaboratively make the cutscenes inherently superior to other games. And if you disagree I'll gladly fight you with utmost glee.

Or continuing with the Double Fine, I really loved Stacking's silent-film stylings.I also have a longstanding affection for Planescape Torment's cutscenes. They were simple (and by todays standards, really freaking ugly), but they were wonderfully evocative.

I would of given it to Brawl out of those two because I think of cutscene like I think of movies the more you show and the less you tell the better, so a monologue or exposition over a bunch of still pictures isn't gonna rate as highly as characters emotionally and physically progressing the story.

I was gonna say Infamous, but screw it, Brawl totally wins. The story is told without a single moment of dialogue, and everything conveyed perfectly without it. Max Payne relied on the cutscenes to make sense of it's bullet time and gameplay, while Brawl was just brawling, occasionally with reason. Old rivals going at it, sure, that's easy, but contenders from across the land squaring off and sizing each other up? Hells yeah.

Hmm this is a tough one. Out of the two i can't really judge since I haven't played Max Payne, but i did really enjoy Brawls Cutscenes. I mean just to see the interactions between the characters was amazing and was worth playing though the game.

Now my favorite Cutscene in a game.. Well I'm going to have to go with Half Life 2. Mainly for the fact that it really didn't have any cutscenes. It told the story while you were in control the entire time. If i wanted to shoot my gun off trying to drown out their mindless dribble i could. If i wanted to tea bag the desk while they were talking i could. It just added a lot to the experience that I was actually the character playing the game and not the person on the screen.

I also really enjoyed the way ME3 did the cutscenes. By doing it as it only took away your camera control temp to show you what was going on in the scene it lent a lot to the feeling that you were still in control. And besides you didn't have stupid loading screens in between them all the time. You just got right back into the action which was done really well. I just wish they had the whole game like it with all the side quests rather then just the main quests.

It's nice to see a couple of gamers talking about how cutscenes can enhance games rather than simply "RRGH MUST PUSH BUTTONS TO COUNT AS GAEM!" Yes, cutscenes have uses varied from annoying (covering up loading screens in God of War) to infuriating (padding the length of Metal Gear titles), but when they're used properly they can add a whole other element to the game.

Kyle's example of Max Payne is probably the best known, though I think the Ratchet and Clank series also deserves honorable mention. Cutscenes there show off the personalities of even minor characters, and help to establish a tone for the game besides "mascot platformer with guns." It's one of the few games you can market based on its sense of humor, and without the cutscenes all you see of that humor is the Sheepinator.

Another excellent example of using cutscenes to set tone is Dead Rising 2. Zombies are pushovers. You can beat them to death with your bare hands if you're patient enough, so it's more about using weapons to keep from getting bored. Psychopaths, on the other hand, make you question the usefulness of everything in your inventory, require you to stop thinking about one giant mob and focus on a primary target. The cutscenes help to clue the player in to that change, showing your opponents as amoral nutjobs who stay alive less on how much they care about their own lives so much as their complete disregard for anyone else's. Oh, and how else are you supposed to establish that I should be afraid of taking on a team of struggling magicians?

I like the Brawl cut-scenes, as what little story there is is told entirely by the characters' bodies. And while it can be argued that the entire game is just fan-service, the cut-scenes elevate the concept of fan-service to an art-form in itself; mixing non-verbal story telling, an accurate depiction of a couple of dozen characters through movement and action alone, and even a story that begins to seem almost real when the details of a hand controled by a puppet master planning to destory everything begins to be unveiled by visual narative alone.

That is why Brawl is epic. It takes the simplest way to tug at our fanboy heartstrings, and perfects it in the simplest way possible while giving maximum emotional and gameplay impact.

OT: Based on their choices I agree with 99% of what both of them said, however I don't think they really understand what film noir is. Sure, Max Payne stole a few conventions from the genre but I don't think the cutscene style in any way reflects the stylistic features of film noir, but to be fair I'm being very picky when I say that because it doesn't really matter.

Also, on the topic of cutscenes that are "too long", in relation to series such as metal gear solid, that was actually a convention of the series and vital for the sake of revealing important plot points. Could you imagine playing a main Metal Gear Solid title without these long breaks where it goes all cinema on your ass? It just wouldn't feel like you're playing the same game and so I don't think you can criticise MGS for its long cutscenes, if they're not to your liking then fine but theres nothing wrong with them either. My best example for this is the last cut scene in Snake Eater following your fight with the Boss. Theres no way that would have been anywhere near as emotionally powerful as it was if they had been forced to make it shorter.

If this was my argument, I'd be advocating Psychonauts. The cutscenes not only are stylistically and graphically perfectly implemented into the game to give a seamless feel, they tell the story without making you feel like you're watching a film and they never outstay their welcome. The integration is just that good. Plus, they're funny as hell.

Pretty much any cutscene from the legacy of kain series. All of them deepen both the characters and the world they live in, with a arguably the best voice acting ever. Plus any with just Kain and Raziel are brilliant.

My personal vote for the singular goes to Foltest's assassination in The Witcher 2.

Or the ending to Mafia (both the original and how it is in Mafia 2). And Mafia probably has my favourite cutscenes as a whole.

Phoenix09215:Theres no way that would have been anywhere near as emotionally powerful as it was if they had been forced to make it shorter.

You don't need cutscenes half the length of a feature film to convey emotional depth and create emotional resonance, unless you're exceptionally incompetent at both self-editing and writing in the first place. And making games.

Oh, and "you can not like it, but you can't criticise it" is ridiculous.

Eternal Darkness. When you reach the Guardian with Paul, after grinding through a few dungeons with him for a solid chunk of time. If you haven't played it, don't watch this link--buy the game and play through it, simply for its sheer awesomeness.

I don't know why they had the madness boss first in that video. (The game lets you pick whether your last boss is madness, health, or mana-type, and your choice changes the bosses throughout the rest of the game.) Maddness is by far the least impressive battle, but I guess it's got the creepiest intro. So whatever.

The Brawl cutscenes were awesome in the sense that you get to see a different side of all your classic Nintendo characters. They're all kicking butt together and coexisting. It's fan service.Max Payne is better in this case, though. So I agree with the outcome.

My vote was gonna go to MGS, but I had to agree with the fact that MGS wants you to put the controller down and watch a movie instead of playing. Nothing wrong with that; the story is quite amazing. And it's not like you only have 5 minutes of gameplay and an hour long cutscene. No, the gameplay is also amazing. But it can be tedious to just watch and wait until the game picks up again.

So my vote goes to the PS1 Final Fantasy games. FF7 (I hate it but alright), FF8 and FF9. No dialogue and yet, you don't need it. Just look around at all the people who still cry for Aeris' death, a cutscene that last, what, less than a minute? And yet it was meaningful. The fights between the SeeD gardens from FF8 made you feel like you were in the middle of the action. The story might have been complicated but the cutscenes were easy to follow. With FF9, you felt sympathetic for a kid with a pitch black face and a giant hat. In theory, that sounds pretty impossible. And yet. And not only that but those games were one of the first ones to incorporate the whole invisible link between a cutscene and gameplay. No more waiting 5 seconds for the game to load after a cutscene. Not even a second. Cutscene is done and off you go. And don't get me started on KH, the game that made Disney characters cool at least that one time.

It's hard to decide on a better cutscene. Heck, I was gonna go with Legend of Dragoon because the cutscenes were pretty awesome to me (Just the cutscenes, not the voice acting). I suppose its a matter of opinion.

So all they did was present a point, then the other guy stated how his game also exhibits the same quality. Then the first guy stated a new point, and the process repeated. Isn't the idea of a debate that both parties present unique points? Are all their episodes like this?

Honestly, I could think of a dozen different games that use cutscenes excellently. But then I haven't played the two games that were discussed, so I guess they might utilise cutscenes in more appropriate ways. But I have my doubts.

Also, there's a big ongoing debate in the video games industry as to the balance of narratology and ludology; narratology being story, and ludology being gameplay.Exactly how effective any particular ratio is is entirely subjective, really.

Aww, no one remembers Devil May Cry 3's awesome cutscenes? That game has my vote. 4 had some great one's when Dante beat the bosses too.

Xbox Ninja Gaiden cutscenes were actually the last time I was ever really impressed with a game's graphics. Obviously, graphics have improved since then, but it's never really been the same kind of leap. And seeing those crazy rainbow demons moving around in all the different locales in that game was really unique.

I really liked Max Payne. Hell, I'm replaying it and it's sequel currently. I think that there is phenomenal characters, story, and action going on in these expertly crafted graphic novel bits. The graphics where a bit old, so I'm glad that I can replay it and still feel stuck in the game without going, "Shit, this game is old. Check out this poorly rendered cut scene."